Catharinus Elling

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Catharinus Elling (born September 13, 1858 in Kristiania ; † January 8, 1942 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian composer, folk music collector, music critic and teacher.

Life

Born into a musical family, Elling had piano lessons from his mother from the age of six. After studying music from 1874-75, he studied history at the University of Oslo with English and French as minor subjects. His first compositions were written while he was studying, but only a few songs have survived without a word. In the summer of 1877 he began his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory , which he had to abandon in 1878 for financial reasons. In the early 1880s his first compositions were performed (by the singer Thorvald Lammers and the conductor Johan Svendsen ). In 1883 he received his diploma in philology from the University of Oslo.

He began as a music reviewer at Dagbladet and was a music critic at Ny Illustreret Tidende from 1884 to 1886 . Edvard Grieg , to whom he had sent some compositions, expressed himself very positively about them in the Bergens Tidende in 1885 and performed some of his romances at a concert. In 1886 he received an AC Houens legat with Grieg's support and attended Heinrich von Herzogenberg's composition class in Berlin . When he returned to Kristiania in 1889, he gave a composition evening in which his sister, the singer Jacoba , the pianists Erika Lie Nissen and Martin Ursin , the singer Thorvald Lammers and the violinist Gustav Fredrik Lange took part. In the following year Iver Holter performed his First Symphony.

In 1889 Elling married Ulrika Ramm and went to Berlin with her. His greatest work, the opera Kosakkerne , was written there between 1890 and 1894 . In 1896 he returned to Kristiania, where he taught composition at the Conservatory until 1908. He also headed the Drammen Sangforening from 1891 to 1901 . In 1897 he completed three other major works here, the symphony in A minor, the orchestral work Thema med Variationer and the string quartet in D major.

Since the end of the 1890s, Elling was mainly active as a folk song collector. He made several trips through Norway, during which he recorded more than 1,400 folk songs and published several books on Norwegian folk music. Elling was the brother of the engineer and inventor Ægidius Elling .

Works

Compositions

  • Musikalske diktninger for string orchestra, oboe and two horns (1878)
  • Piano trio in D major (1885)
  • Symfoni i A major (1890)
  • Cossacks , opera (1890–94)
  • Evig for choir, text: Jens Peter Jacobsen (1892)
  • Sonata in D major for violin and piano (1894)
  • Symfoni i A minor (1897)
  • Theme med variasjoner for orchestra (1897)
  • Strykek vartet in D major (1897)
  • Kong Inge og Gregorius Dagssøn for tenor male choir and orchestra, text by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1898)
  • Cantata for mixed choir and orchestral text by Jacob B. Bull (1899)
  • Norsk suite (1903-04)
  • Konsert for violin and orkester (1918)

Fonts

  • Vore folk melodies (1909)
  • Vore kjæmpeviser (1914)
  • Vore slåtter (1915)
  • Tonefølelse (1920)
  • Norsk folkemusikk (1922)
  • Strøbemerkninger til vor musikhistorie (1925)
  • Vore Religøse folketoner (1927)
  • Sprogforholdet inden vore folk melodies (1930)
  • Nye bidrag til belysning af norsk folk music (1933)

swell

personal data
SURNAME Elling, Catharinus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian composer, folk music collector, music critic and educator
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Kristiania
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1942
Place of death Oslo